Greetings!
Welcome to my first blog.
I’ve
been resisting this. I must admit. Sometimes, it’s
hard to imagine that anyone would be interested in hearing
what I do and think, but there are hints that perhaps
there are people “out-there” (I’ve been
“out-there” for awhile) are interested in
hearing “my point of view”.
My
intention with this first blog, is to get the obligatory
“all about me” section out of the way, so
that we can begin the discussion of issues which might
be helpful for all of us. Obviously, everything I’m
communicating is coming from my “point of view”,
which is from the perspective of a good observer, dedicated
student and 30+ years of experience and reflection.
When
the creating (doing) begins and the time stops, one can
enjoy the fruit of the work. Tasting the sweetness, but
the mind is not involved…… not in the active,
controlling sense, anyway. When 100% focused on the task
of the moment, the mind can’t be involved, not without
taking some focus away from the task of the moment. One
could say “we spend a lifetime of work, research
and study in order to strive to reach a place where/when
we can simply “do”, without thinking, without
analyzing, judging, criticizing, comparing etc,. We can’t
reach this place without the work, it seems, but we all
have “it” from the day we’re born. The
ability to “be”, the ability to be present
in the moment, without the distractions of the chattering,
critical mind.
You
know? Improvising, composing or creating in the moment
without thinking creates a flowing and beautiful music,
or whatever you are creating. It’s as if we just
“let” it happen, without getting in the way.
Most
of our performance problems are actually directly related
to a “thought”, or group of thoughts. Check
that out!
But,
what about the ego? Don’t we need the ego in order
to “compete”? In order to stay motivated?
Do we need an inflated ego to reach greatness or “success”?
Or…. can a big ego truly reach
greatness – mastership? Is it possible to keep the
ego in check, as in “Check Mate”? Or, does
the ego get in the way? Make it more difficult to continue?
Somehow, ego is connected to insecurity, right? So, the
louder one pounds his chest the more insecure he is? hmmm
I
don’t know.
How
can we keep an objective view of our life situation? Or,
should we keep an objective view of our
life situation? Certainly better than a biased view. Ah…
who’s not biased? Back to “point of view”.
I’d
like to greet family, friends and colleagues.
And, say “welcome” to all guests and new friends.
The beginning of a beautiful relationship? I hope. We’ll
see.
I’ve
not been good with my correspondence the past couple of
years, but I can assure you that I’ve been busy
working. I don’t think anybody can accuse me of
being lazy. A “workaholic” on the other hand??
Guilty.! But in my defense, I say that I love the work
I do. The creative work, especially. I am completely absorbed
in it. I realize, or believe that the creative work (composing,
arranging, improvising) is what feeds my soul.
This
creative focus, combined with a major move eastward six
years ago has resulted in a reduced presence on the international
jazz “map”, so recently I’ve been putting
a great deal of time, energy and money into making the
business of Ed Neumeister more viable. This is also time
consuming and not quite as fun as “creating”.
But, somehow, it comes with the territory.
One
of “our” most pressing issues of these times
seems to be “time”, or rather how we manage
our time. Of course, the most efficient use of “time”
requires that we are focusing on the moment or rather,
“focusing on the task of the moment”. Sometimes,
the task of the moment is organizing the working schedule.
Perhaps it’s interesting how my working time has
been organized?
“Time”
in the musical sense is another discussion. Which we will
have in due course, of course.
My
daily schedule goes something like this:
Up at 6:00am with a large cappuccino, a peruse of the
on-line news, check e-mails, organize the day.
